Jeremy Corbyn, currently having every word that comes out of his mouth analysed by the political minds of Britain as he leads the Labour Party’s campaign towards next month’s surprise general election, has today insinuated that, if elected, he will lead Britain in a stance against NATO’s request that the UK send more soldiers to the frontlines of the conflict in Afghanistan.

‘I want to see a peace settlement in Afghanistan,’ says Corbyn

According to Corbyn, speaking to a crowd of reporters, this would not help any part in fixing the conflict. The speech came after Corbyn christened the Labour Party’s General Election campaign bus.

He said his desire is “to see a peace settlement in Afghanistan,” and reminded voters that he was against “the deployment of troops in the first place in Afghanistan.”

He said that a much better strategy to resolving the conflict in Afghanistan – much, much better, since sending more troops wouldn’t do any good whatsoever, at least in Corbyn’s eyes – would be “to look at promoting political stability in Afghanistan.” However, Corbyn did promise to review the request from NATO if and when it came through under his potential government in the near future.

Does Corbyn think British soldiers are destabilising the political system of Afghanistan?

When one of the journalists Corbyn was speaking to asked him if he believed the UK troops’ presence in Afghanistan had undermined the country’s “political stability,” he said that our troops have “suffered a great deal in Afghanistan,” and that the ones he has spoken to about their experiences “have been through awful, awful situations there.” He added that they share his view that we should be aspiring to “a secure political solution in Afghanistan,” which isn’t going to happen if British troops are deployed there, because “at the end of the day, wars are not solved by the presence of foreign troops.”

Corbyn outlined that “what I believe” (because what he believes is important because we have to decide if he gets to run the country and therefore make these decisions, so his beliefs are very important) is that wars are instead “solved by political solutions.”

Corbyn might be staying on as Labour leader if he loses the election

Yesterday, Corbyn pledged that he would be “carrying on” as the leader of the Labour Party, even if it loses the general election on 8 June (it looms!).

Top Videos of the Day

However, today, he refused to say anything further on such a matter, leaving it up in the air as to whether or not he will indeed be keeping his position in the face of possible failure.

Corbyn might not have been talking about what he would do if he fails because he wants to stand boldly in the face of the election and not even consider the possibility of losing it in order to show off his confidence to voters. One of Corbyn’s aides must have told him that talking so decisively about what he plans to do if he loses the election shows a lack of faith in his party’s chances in the election, so when he was asked about it today, he’d all of a sudden changed his tune: “I think we’ll win this election. That’s the only question.” Then an aide (quite possibly the same, aforementioned aide who told him about the publicity problems involved with contemplating an election loss) jumped in and quickly said, “Moving on...” to deter the journalists. It was awkward.

Also, Corbyn shot down the notion that voters who usually vote Labour should feel this election out and vote instead for parties like the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party in an effort to bring down the Conservative majority and save the government from the bad guys, which has been coined the PC name, a “progressive alliance.” Corbyn said “I want people all over the country to have the chance to vote Labour, which they’ve got.” He wants people to vote for the “Labour candidates all over the country,” and for “the policies we’ll bring forward, which will change this country, which will produce more opportunity, more equality, wherever you are.”

This area provides transparent information about Blasting News, our editorial processes and how we strive for creating trustworthy news. Moreover, it fulfills our commitment to The Trust Project - News with Integrity (Blasting News is not part of the programme yet).

This website uses profiling (non technical) cookies, also third parties cookies, in order to send advertising messages according to user's preferences. To know our policy or to deny the consent for cookies use click here. If you continue the navigation through accessing each element below or you close this banner you agree to the use of cookies